SPRING OFFENSIVE

By Wilfred Owen

Halted against the shade of the last hill,

They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease

And, finding comfortable chests and knees

Carelessly slept. But many there stood still

To face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,

Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.

Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirled

By the May breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge,

For though the summer oozed into their veins

Like the injected drug for their bones’ pains,

Sharp on their souls hung the imminent line of grass,

Fearfully flashed the sky’s mysterious glass.

Hour after hour they ponder the warm field—

And the far valley behind, where the buttercups

Had blessed with gold their slow boots coming up,

Where even the little brambles would not yield,

But clutched and clung to them like sorrowing hands;

They breathe like trees unstirred.

At which each body and its soul begird

And tighten them for battle. No alarms

Of bugles, no high flags, no clamorous haste—

Only a lift and flare of eyes that faced

The sun, like a friend with whom their love is done.

O larger shone that smile against the sun,—

Mightier than his whose bounty these have spurned.

So, soon they topped the hill, and raced together

Over an open stretch of herb and heather

Exposed. And instantly the whole sky burned

With fury against them; and soft sudden cups

Opened in thousands for their blood; and the green slopes

Chasmed and steppened sheer to infinite space.

Of them who running on that last high place

Leapt to swift unseen bullets, or went up

On the hot blast and fury of hell’s upsurge,

Or plunged and fell away past this world’s verge,

Some say God caught them even before they fell.

But what say such as from existence’ brink

Ventured but drave too swift to sink.

And there out-fiending all its fiends and flames

With superhuman inhumanities,

Long-famous glories, immemorial shames—

And crawling slowly back, have by degrees

Regained cool peaceful air in wonder—

Why speak they not of comrades that went under?

The poet Wilfred Owen wrote about the Kaiser's Battle of 1918 in his poem "Spring
Offensive”, also known as the Ludendorff Offensive. The German attacks along the Western
Front during World War I from March 21 until July 18, 1918, were part of the Spring
Offensive. This poem by Wilfred Owen, which bears the same name, describes the incident
in which the Germans attacked members of the Allied forces and were defeated. The poem's
agitation and frantic pacing convey a realistic picture of the actual offences.

Themes:

There are 5 themes in the poem “Spring Offensive”:

 Horror of war – this is the poem’s most significant theme and is depicted by the
troops' conditions, the author conveys the horrible aspect of war as a whole. How war
plays with the lives of the soldiers and makes them suffer as if their lives had no
value.
 Death - is present in the poetry at all times. The very first line, "Halted against the
shade of a last hill," refers to the fact that death always looms over a soldier's fate by
using prolepsis, or anticipation.
 Suffering – description of the battle and how the soldiers died in that event,
collectively present the theme of suffering.
 Glory – the poet uses the theme of glory to satirize the attitude of those who support
the cause of war. Those nationalistic men glorify the soldiers who have survived the
war but never talk about those who died.
  Mental unrest – the diction of the poem depicts the mental unrest of the poet along
with the soldiers who fought in World War I. 

Tone:

Wilfred Owen uses a direct, emotive and ironic tone in the poem. He speaks as an overlooker
that describes the activities of the soldiers and how they suffered on the battlefield.
The ironic tone in the lines, “Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world” and “But
clutched and clung to them like sorrowing hands”, reflects the poet’s disgust about the war.
However, as the poem progressed from beginning to end his tone changes from calm and
direct to a tone of a soldier who suffered in the actual place of action.

Structure of the poem:

“Spring Offensive” has a ten-syllable line with a mixed iambic-trochaic meter, irregular
rhymes, and couplets interwoven throughout. There are contrasts between life and death,
peace and conflict, stillness and commotion, idleness and action, etc. There are five stanzas.
The line count of each stanza of the poem is also irregular since some stanzas contain 14
lines. Whereas, some have only 4 to 6 lines.

Examples of its irregular rhyming scheme: in the first stanza, only the second and third lines
rhyme together and the rest of the lines don’t rhyme. The second stanza, depicting the natural
setting, contains several rhyming lines. This section reflects a sense of harmony that exists in
nature. In the third stanza, the harmony of the poem breaks a bit. In the following stanzas, the
rhyming breaks often when the poet refers to the scenes of war.

Literary Devices:

 Metaphor –
 In the first stanza, there is a metaphor in the “last hill”. 
 The second stanza contains several metaphors such as “black sky”, “end of the
world”, and “sky’s mysterious glass”.
 Personification – The second stanza line 2 contains a personification in the phrase
“May breeze”.
  Onomatopoeia – is also used in the word, “murmurous” in stanza 2 line 2.
 Simile – also in the second stanza, it is present in this line, “Like the injected drug for
their bone’s pains”.
 Metonymy – In the third stanza, there is a metonymy in the usage of the word “gold”.
 Allusion – there is a biblical allusion in the fourth stanza of the poem.
 Paradox – there is a paradox in the line, “But what say such from existence’ brink”.
 Oxymoron –in the phrase, “superhuman inhumanities” and
 Antithesis –in the following line, “Long-famous glories, immemorial shames—”
 In the last line, there is a rhetorical question. It is also an example of irony.

Analysis, Stanza by stanza:

The small amount of time that soldiers have to rest during a battle is reflected in the abrupt
and abbreviated opening of Wilfred Owen's "Spring Offensive." Throughout the first verse, a
hill is depicted. It represents the "final hill” of their life in metaphor. As the soldiers didn’t
know if they would survive or not. After a long time, they had eaten something. They slept
carelessly because they felt secure there. A synecdoche is present in the words "comfortable
chest and knees" in this sentence.
At the start of the second stanza, it describes what other troops did while the rest of the squad
rested close to the hill. enemy forces could attack at any time, they realized. Due to this, some
of them got to their feet and kept looking around to ensure their safety. The “sky” in this case
represents the prognosis for a soldier. A pitiful fallacy is also present in the portrayal of the
sky. The condition of the sky seemed to be comparable to that of the soldiers.

Wilfred Owen depicts the surroundings' natural landscape in this portion of “Spring
Offensive”. Due to the late Spring, lush grass that swayed in the breeze enhanced the month
of May's environment. Additionally, the auditory imagery in “murmurous with wasp and
midge” aids readers in conjuring up the scene.

The last phrase of this stanza, however, abruptly introduces the feeling of battle into the poem
amid the peaceful pictures of Spring. Their veins were filled with the warmth of Spring,
which made them think of the way the medications they had been given to make their bones
less painful had made them feel.

In these final two lines of the second stanza, Owen describes how war affects both the
physical and the minds of troops. Here, the poet foreshadows the troops' demise by using the
phrase “imminent line of grass”. The description of the sky as a “mysterious glass” conveys a
sense of dread as well. It serves as a sign of impending peril as well. The last two words of
the second verse are Owen's description of how war affects soldiers' bodies and minds. The
poet's use of the phrase “imminent line of grass” and the description of the sky as a
“mysterious glass” both hint at the troops' impending doom. Here it also serves as a warning
of danger.

Stanza Three
Lines 1–6

,……..

The poet uses the sad fallacy to describe the brambles in this section. The personified
brambles understood that the soldiers or “slow boots” wouldn't comply with their request.
Nevertheless, they begged them to stay out of the conflict. As though they had hands, they
clung to them. The metaphor of “sorrowing hands” is used by the poet to relate to the
soldiers' loved ones.

However, the poet compares them to trees in the final sentence of this section. The poet
perceives them as stubborn and unable to be side-tracked from their pointless goal. The tree's
representation also alludes to the soldiers' arid interiors and heartless hearts.
The poet describes how the men prepared for battle in this stanza. In this poem, the poet
compares the battle to “a cold gust”. Men protect their bodies in both situations to keep
themselves safe. Ironically, the soldiers, however, guarded even their spirits.

In addition, the poet paints a plausible picture of contemporary conflict. Heroism doesn't
important in this situation; winning is what counts. Because of this, it is useless to scare one's
adversaries with a bugle call, tall flags, or raucous noises. The word "no" is used several
times in this passage, which highlights the concepts it contains.

Lines 11–14

Here, Wilfred Owen exemplifies how a soldier's thoughts about the war started. Then it
actually occurs. The soldiers' eyes also appeared to be blank. Their eyes lit up in anticipation
of the combat that was drawing closer. Aside from that, they had destroyed all the stunning
aspects of nature. Only death was important to them. They grinned in response, despite the
sun. The word "smile" is used here in an unclear manner. It can be an allusion to their bold
mindset. Or perhaps they grinned in acceptance of their fate as a group.

The fourth stanza of Wilfred Owen's poem “Spring Offensive” details the start of the conflict.
Enjambment is used by the poet to advance the poem's flow in this section. Alliteration is
also used by the poet in the lines “So, soon”, “they topped”, “herb and heather”, “soft
sudden”, and “Chasmed and steepened”.

The rigidity of the earlier stanzas, however, disappears in this passage as the beats of war
begin. The natural environment got turbulent as the conflict had only just begun.
Additionally, the lyrics “soft sudden cups/ Opened in thousands for their blood”, allude to
how brutal war can be. The soldiers who give their lives in defence of their nation are
likewise referenced in this eucharistic imagery. The final line serves as a death emblem.

A series of images from the conflict are presented in Wilfred Owen's "Spring Offensive."
This stanza continues the internal flow from the previous one. In the fourth verse at the start
of this part, the poet also refers to people who were running up the hill. Their lives had been
taken by the quick, invisible bullets. Others were killed by the "hot blast." The entire scene
changed into a "fury of hell's eruption," as if hell had surfaced from underneath.

In fear, other soldiers jumped from the ridge. The phrase "world's verge" is overstated here.
By using this term, the poet foretells how the end of the world would occur—not with a
"bang," but rather with the "sigh" of the soldiers.

A final sarcastic statement from the poet is, "Some say God caught them even before they
fell." The poet serves as an example of how religious authorities deceived followers about
reality.
The poet once more condemns the guys who embellished the pain of troops in the opening
two lines of this section. While they were plummeting from the cliff, there was none. Only
the soldiers engaged in combat there were aware of their suffering.

The poet makes reference to those who went into “hell”, which is a metaphor for the
battlefield, in the following few lines. To "out-fiend" their adversaries, they demonstrated
“superhuman” abilities. The soldiers' cruelty and ruthlessness are alluded to in the phrase
“superhuman inhumanities”.

Wilfred Owen illustrates how the world exalted those who were able to return victorious in
the final four lines of “Spring Offensive”. Their “Long-famous glories” next to them caused
the conscience to feel “immemorial shames”. They stumbled back to their lives, regaining
their nation's “cool” and “peaceful air”. The poet, though, is most hurt by how his fellow
citizens treat the fallen warriors. They didn't think it was important to exalt the lives of those
who “went under”.